The present invention relates to an electronic identification tag for people.
Identification tags for people are available. For example, soldiers and members of similar organizations, such as the militia, gendarmerie, border patrol, national guard, conscripted militia, wear such identification tags constantly, i.e., day and night. Identification tags are data carriers having data that is specific to the particular person. Soldiers, in particular, carry identification tags. At the present time, those tags are made of sheet metal having two symmetrical halves that are separable by a predefined rupture groove. The tag can be worn on a chain around the neck. One""s nationality, personal identification number, and blood type are engraved as data into each of the two halves. In the event of death, one half is broken off and is used to identify the person in question; the other half remains on the body. The basis for the material selection and the long-lasting debossing of the data is that, should the need arise, the identification tag must be able to provide information about the particular person, even under the harshest conditions and, for example, after years in the corrosive ground.
The data stored on such a conventional identification tag no longer can meet the needs of a modern, hi-tech army. In all modern armed forces, the soldier, e.g., the infantryman or the rifleman, is increasingly considered to be part of a weapons system or even as an independent weapons system. This may be evidenced by his ability, acquired from special training and equipment, to act and survive independently, and in the individual case, even for a long period of time. Information on an individual soldier""s training, for example, parachute training, specific competencies, such as driver""s license, knowledge, medical dispositions, such as vaccinations and allergies, are usually available in a decentralized location in various paper data files, and cannot always be readily retrieved in critical situations. However, it is precisely the requirements for rapid troop deployment, such as of the so-called crisis reaction forces of the armed forces, which necessitate making such data immediately available on site.
Nowadays, plastic cards have also become established as data carriers, and may be used as identification cards, health insurance cards, or as credit cards, either with or without chips, and with or without contacts. Such a card is described, for example, in the German Patent Application No. 196 48 767 A1. The cards themselves are made of plastic and are used in various designs as data carriers, the data essentially being stored in a visually non-readable form on magnetic strips, optically encoded in the form of a hologram, or in a chip. In addition, visually readable data, such as relief embossing, debossing, laser-based labeling, or bar codes may be applied to such data carriers. In the case of the chip cards, so-called memory chip cards and smart cards are used, the latter also being equipped with a microprocessor or with programmable logic arrays. Data stored on cards of this kind may be used for many purposes. For example, they may be used to identify someone as an authorized user to a system and to grant him access to this system. Examples of this are phone cards, credit cards, access cards to smart master-key systems, or health insurance cards. Particularly in the last two cases, personal data are written into the card""s memory. Cards of this kind having magnetic, optical, or chip-supported memories/processors are described, for example, in xe2x80x9cArchiv fxc3xcr das Post-und Fernmeldewesenxe2x80x9d, 42nd volume, 3rd issue, August 1990, or in xe2x80x9cDer Fernmeldeingenieurxe2x80x9d, 43rd volume, issue 8/9, August/September 1989.
The available memory or microprocessor chip cards may, in fact, be able to store a great deal of data. However, they may not be suited as electronic identification tags for people having combatant status.
Exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods according to the present invention are directed to devising an electronic identification tag for people having combatant status, which will meet the requirements of the military, militia, gendarmerie, border patrol, national guard, mountain rescue service, and the like, and which, moreover, will render possible a modern data acquisition and transmission, as is prevalent in present-day chip and microprocessor cards.
Further exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods according to the present invention are directed to providing an electronic identification tag for people having combatant status which is designed either in a chip card form or identification tag form and is made up of two parts that can be separated by a rupture joint or point of break. In this context, the rupture joint can be configured in a horizontal, vertical, diagonal form or in a meander or undulated shape. Other designs, such as a zigzag shape, are also possible. The identification card or tag itself can either be made of a very resistant plastic, glass, ceramic, or the like, the particular data carrier or memory device being embedded with or without intelligence in the form of a chip, magnetic strip or hologram. All relevant personal data may be stored on both sections or sides. In a further exemplary embodiment and/or method, this can be done by equipping only one section or one side of the identification card or tag with a chip, and not the other. This means that, on the other side, all relevant personal data may be electronically stored and, at least on the other side, all data are applied again so as to be visually perceptible. With respect to durability and resistance to external influences, exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods according to the present invention of the identification card or tag may be designed to satisfy the requirements of an identification tag, the special environmental and field conditions and demands placed on the group of people and the field conditions being considered.
In exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods according to the present invention, the memory or microprocessor chip structure or hierarchy of the identification card or tag permits a very flexible directory structure, so that global card data, such as personal identification number, nation, name, blood type, can be stored in the main directory, for example. In further exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods according to the present invention, in data fields of the main directory, for example, one can then store access authorizations, and training or special qualifications in a subdirectory, for example. The data fields of the subdirectories, in turn, can include special, specific applications. Specific data or information, thus, for example, the log-on or start procedure and the transfer protocol can be stored in a ROM, and the application data fields can be stored in an EEPROM, which can also include a section for accommodating the security procedure(s). In further exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods according to the present invention, the data can be written or read in contactless fashion. Thus, the wearer of such an identification tag can be sensed in contactless fashion by a suitable detecting device. This may be useful, for example, in the event when weapons injure many people, and there is a need to organize medical provisions.